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SUMMARY The influence of five factors (cause of death, age at death, sex, ADH 3 phenotype and time between death and autopsy) on the total levels of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity exhibited by crude extracts of human post‐mortem liver specimens in a series of 954 adult individuals have been examined. The cause of death was found to be the most important factor: livers from patients dying from a sudden traumatic accident or illness of acute onset showed, on average, two or three times more ADH activity than the livers from patients dying of a chronic illness or cancer. Age at death and sex appeared to have only small effects on total liver ADH activity: in general, samples from young adults showed slightly higher levels than samples from old people and males gave slightly more activity than females. Liver ADH activity was not markedly influenced by ADH 3 phenotype. Delays of up to 10 days between death and autopsy seemed to exert little influence on the ADH activity of post‐mortem liver specimens.
Azevêdo et al. (1974) studied this question.